


Strangers in a Strange Land (English Version)

by Petricor75



Series: Strangers - English Version - Post Alien Resurrection Director's Cut [1]
Category: Alien Quadrilogy (Movies), Alien Series, Post Alien Resurrection
Genre: Adventure & Romance, F/F, Falling In Love, Feelings Realization, Femslash, Hurt/Comfort, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-21
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:35:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 16,333
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28214055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Petricor75/pseuds/Petricor75
Summary: Ripley and Call need to find some kits to replace Call's fluids and repair the hole in her stomach, they will find out more that they'd ever imagine in the process.English is not my first language, I hope I made a good enough translation to let you enjoy the story.I will be glad to all of them who will take a moment to let me know what they think about it.This fanfiction is part one of Strangers series, it takes place right at the end of Alien Resurrection Director's cut edition.
Relationships: Annalee Call/Ellen Ripley
Series: Strangers - English Version - Post Alien Resurrection Director's Cut [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2066802
Comments: 16
Kudos: 16
Collections: Aliens





	1. Strangers in a Strange Land

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [Strangers in a Strange Land](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6116534) by [Petricor75](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Petricor75/pseuds/Petricor75). 



> Alien and its characters do not belong to me.  
> This story was written without any profit.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "You know, a person could get pretty lost around here if they wanted to... What do you think? What should we do?"  
> "I don't know… I'm a stranger here myself. Anyway, what makes you think that from now on we'll be stick together?"

**ONE: Strangers in a strange land**

The arid ground slid between her fingers, dispersing in the warm, dry wind, leaving a thin layer of fine reddish powder on her palm. She collected another handful at the foot of the rock on which she sat, being hypnotized by the sight of the dust dragged away by the gentle gusts of breeze which caressed her. It was so strange to take a moment for herself, without the thought of running and fighting to save her life, that the presence of the girl, sitting next to her, with her back a few centimeters from hers, was almost annoying.

Annalee Call didn't really know what she was waiting for, but the woman seemed to ignore her, and she felt the need to know what would happen the very next. Although the purpose of her personal mission had changed during the course of the recent events, for better or worse, it had kept her busy. But at that very moment, even though she had half an idea of her next movements, she didn't want to split from her and felt the need to know whether or not they'd stay together.

"So this is the Earth, uh?", she broke the silence, trying to hide the discomfort.

"This is Earth", Ripley confirmed in a flat voice.

"This is my first time here", the young woman informed her, waiting in vain for an answer.

She imposed herself to keep staring at the ruins of the city which had once been Paris in the distance. The sun behind them was already low on the horizon.

"I suppose the military will be sniffing around here pretty soon", she added, turning her head a few degrees, in an attempt to catch some reaction from her interlocutor. The silence had become heavy, but she did't give up.

"Bet you're not too anxious to see them", she tried to joke, throwing at her furtive glances.

The hybrid wondered why a part of herself was feeling such pleasure in seeing her struggling, looking for attention, reassurance, answers. It was as if she didn't know what to do without the struggle, the challenge, even if only psychological, and so she needed to sting her.

Until then, her existence had been dominated by the danger of xenomorphs. Wake up, break, flee, fight, save, kill... protect… if you can... At that very moment there was too much calm around her. She was not used to it, she didn't know how to deal with it, the alien part within herself was totally… alien to herself. She no longer felt the presence of those dangerous beings, and the fierce animal within her was still struggling to ascend to the surface.

"Not really", she granted in the end, trying to keep calm.

The other one relaxed a little and took some courage.

"You know, a person could get pretty lost around here if they wanted to", she informed her, her eyes were nervously darting in her direction.

The woman had clearly returned to her own thoughts and didn't seem to want to answer, but she couldn't help but keep trying.

"What do you think?", she asked. Still no answer.

"What should we do?", she pressed impatiently.

\- _You never give up, do you? -,_ she thought, halfway impatient and amused. She sighed, conceding her a vague answer.

"I don't know… I'm a stranger here myself", then she finally turned her head to look at her, watching the corners of her delicate mouth curling upward, a motion of tenderness towards the girl invaded her, then the Beast slightly touched the surface once again.

"Anyway, what makes you think that from now on we'll be stick together?", she asked.

She noticed that although her tone seemed playful, and her first intent was actually to lighten the atmosphere, her alien DNA was anxiously craving to see the girl keep struggling.

Call instinctively suffocated a laugh, candidly believing that it was one of her sarcastic jokes, but when she turned to look at her and noticed her impassive expression, she wondered if she was not mistaking.

She couldn't sustain her indecipherable gaze for long, and embarrassed, she realized that perhaps she was not joking, after all.

"Fine!", she conceded gritting her teeth as she got up and headed resolutely toward the Betty's hatch.

With a sadistic smile the clone watched her vanishing into the battered shuttle, savoring the taste of another small victory.

—————

"How are we doing, Vriess?", Call asked in an attempt to drive away the bitterness of the recent confrontation. The man was stuck on the command seat, unable to move without her wheelchair.

"One engine partly damaged, but it can still hold some more maneuvers, there are several thermal shields almost completely burned when we entered the atmosphere, they need to be replaced as soon as possible, some oil leaks here and there, but we should be able to leave in two or three hours, worst case scenario", Johner replied coming out of the hold.

"I intercepted a communication, the crash of the Auriga has undoubtedly diverted their attention from our landing, but it won't be long before they notice us. The satellites must have picked us up and recorded us, however, sooner or later they will come", Vriess added performing yet another system diagnostic.

He was quickly beginning to become familiar with the controls, and was more than sure that he would be able to bring the Betty to a safe distance. He would think about the rest later.

"Well, I need to find some repair kits to... Wren's gunshot", the android said in a flat tone.

"And anyway, I have no will at all going back up there", she added, looking at the man who had learned to consider a friend, during the time spent with the pirate crew. He seemed about to say something, but Call anticipated him.

"Just give me enough time to collect a couple of things"

"Oh, of course! Don't worry, Johner's asshole is going to clean up this shit-wreck from the corpses of our comrades, isn't he?", exclaimed the big man with her usual sarcasm.

"I'll help", Ripley offered, coming in from outside.

Her gaze crossed the one of the girl and studied her carefully, she realized that she had exaggerated. She had to learn to control this new side of her 'character'. The taste for victory had long since faded, but the bitterness had remained, it was not worth it.

The Beast had to be tamed.

—————

A little over an hour later, Ripley returned to the bridge and found Vriess focused on the monitor, reading the ship's manual. The landscape outside was rapidly disappearing, swallowed up by the increasingly dense darkness.

For the first time she realized that she could still distinguish the roughness of the terrain and the rare bushes of vegetation that adorned it.

\- _Another gift from the Beast, thank you! -,_ she thought.

"Where's Call?", she questioned him, fearing that the girl had already left, leaving her behind.

"Damn, Ripley, do you always have to be so sneaky?", the man exclaimed, jumping into his chair.

"In her cabin, I believe, corridor on the right, second door on the left", he pointed, gesturing from over a shoulder.

—————

She watched her for almost a minute, while she was storing various items into a military backpack.

She had washed and changed, wearing a desert camo uniform with an endless series of pockets on both jacket and pants.

She was working methodically and silently. She pulled out a smile from her.

"Where are we heading?", the woman asked casually.

"Do you always have to be so sneaky?", the young one asked, who inadvertently lost her grip on the battery pack she was examining.

Ripley couldn't help but choke a laugh, thinking back to the same words as the man on the command bridge.

She would have wanted to ask her exactly what she meant by that question, to dispel any doubts about her wills, because, given the vaguely hostile attitude just few hours earlier, she wasn't quite sure that they would leave together.

After some indecision, she thought that customizing a baggage suitable only for her needs, just as the one had just prep for herself, would be enough at the moment and postponed the inevitable for later. She kept working silently, trying to ignore the feeling of being scrutinized.

As she was satisfied with her load, she weighed it for a while and then stored at the entrance. She opened a locker and quickly threw her a towel.

"You have enough time for a shower, I'll get Hillard's clothes for you... Mine certainly wouldn't fit you... and in any case, she doesn't need them anymore", she told her casually placing in a pillowcase another set of tools.

"Shouldn't we take a look at your wound?", the woman suggested, playing nervously with the sheet in her hands.

"So far I've made do someway, but yes, I'll think about it", she cut it short.

Then she left the room. The hybrid peeked inside the pillowcase. She didn't recognize any of the objects that Call had deposited inside. She pulled out one randomly.

 _'STERI-Kit'_ , the label said. _'Sterilization kit for unsafe waters with self-healing bioneural batteries (max 47000 cycles)'_ , was printed on the back. She stored the item back in the bag and took another one.

The transparent case allowed her to see the inside. There were a series of hooks, a roll of transparent wire, various sized sinkers. A fishing kit. It took her a moment to remember that this bag would be no use to the android and she realized that Call had made it solely for her.

With a smile, she closed the door of the small bathroom behind her and opened the water spray. She started taking off her clothes still stuck to her skin because of sweat, humidity and dirt.

—————

Hillard's backpack was identical to hers, except for the faded color, due to a much more intense use. She decided to take only the dead woman's underwear, preferring Christie wardrobe, who was quite as big and tall as the hybrid.

She rummaged through the dead comrade things for several minutes, before finding what she was looking for, two very compact guns and several packs of ammo, _\- just in case -_ she thought.

The shower jet was still running, and she could hear Ripley moving under it. She deposited the clean robes on the bunk and placed the contents of the pillowcase in a separate pocket.

Although she had seen with her artificial eyes the wound Ripley had inflicted on herself, with her knife, healing instantly, when she snuck into her cell, she decided to add the med aid kit attached on the door. Then she left the room once again with the empty makeshift bag in her hands.

Army food rations were compact and light, but the water would have been tiring to carry. Ripley had at least a day of walk before reaching the nearest wooded area, and then she still had to find a spring, and given the arid conditions of the area, it would not have been easy at all. Just to be sure, she decided to take water for three days.

"I thought Christie clothes would be better suited to your size", she flatly spoke, finding the woman knotting her bootstraps.

"Thank you", she replied in a kind way, as if she was apologizing for her earlier behavior.

She noticed the young woman kept avoiding to cross her gaze. She watched her putting supplies in the backpack. She took the one which Call was handing her and hoisting it on her shoulders. She then helped the young woman to wear her own.

When they both had their loads firmly secured on themselves, they shared the ammunition and wore the guns.

"Ready?", she asked, sketching a half smile.

"Ready", the android agreed.

"Okay, let's go!", she incited her by placing one hand on her shoulder. Call hurried toward the exit, clearly avoiding her touch.


	2. True Blood

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "You have already lost too much blood, the less you move, the less you will keep bleeding"  
> "It's not blood"  
> "It's not blood!? Of course it is blood! It's your own blood, kid!"

**TWO: True blood**

"C'mon, Ironside!", Johner spat out vigorously, grabbing Vriess by the weight. The two dark shadows disappeared into the small ship.

The women watched the hatch closing and shortly afterwards the Betty gently lifted itself off the ground and flew away orienting its reactors at the right angle.

When the ship's roar was little more than a moan in the far distance, Call activated her infrared module and turned to examine their position, comparing it with the cartography stored in her hard-drive.

"Which way?", Ripley distractedly questioned, scanning the landscape. Not getting an answer, she turned around to look at her.

The girl was standing still, not far from her, with her eyes freeze on an unspecified somewhere, she seemed to have isolated herself, as when, manually plugged to the Auriga's computer, she was analyzing the on-board datas and taking control of Father.

"I thought you had burned your modem!", Ripley told her, feeling betrayed.

The android didn't seem to care about that statement. The woman didn't give up, she didn't like the feeling of being deceived, at all.

"Call!", she insisted with firm voice.

This time the young woman turned to look at her with a questioning look.

"You said you had destroyed your wireless module!", she remarked.

"Correct, why are you asking?", Call replied distractedly.

"You have alienated yourself, like when you were connected to Father, how is that possible?", the hybrid asked in a hostile tone.

Call sensed the feeling, but decided not to give it any attention.

"It happens, when I access my database". She cut it short. Seeing the inquiring and perplexed look on Ripley's face, she tried to be clearer.

"Autons were built with different types of memory. My database is just a big archive full of more or less useful information, they are there, but it is as if they were not, until I need them. The first time I access one of these new information, my system automatically transfers it to my personal database, my experience, in short, and it's here that it's enriched through my experiences and emotions", she concluded watching her nodding in return.

"I'm sorry, I should have warned you…", she declared, ashamed of what she considered one of her many manufacturing defects.

"It's ok… my memory has its tantrums as well…", the hybrid joked sympathetically.

"So… which way?", she spurred her on.

"Sixteen kilometers that way", the young answered quickly, extending an arm towards to point the way.

"It's the closest wooded area, it will be easier to find water and shelter"

"Well, let's move, I want to get there before dawn", Ripley said energetically, heading instantly.

After a few steps she realized she was not being followed. She planted her boots to the ground lifting a cloud of dust, and turned around annoyed to see what the problem was.

"I have to get to the industrial area, recover several repair kits", Call explained looking towards the destroyed metropolis.

"I have already lost too many fluids and if I can't find a way to replace them and repair the damaged vessels, I will soon be so dry that my system will automatically go into hibernation and I will be useless", she informed her as she approached.

A motion of anger invaded the tall woman hearing her speak of herself in that very technical language. She bit the inside of her cheek to force herself not to reply something mean.

"Okay, let's go", she said instead, simply changing direction.

"Ripley, I'll join you in a couple of days at the most", she heard her reply.

"Ah, shut up!", she addressed, overtaking the girl.

She began to march taking the broken carcass of the Eiffel Tower, barely visible at dusk, as reference point, keeping her ears well open to be sure that the young woman was following her.

She was catched up one more time! She had allowed her anger to feed the Beast and once again she had let off steam on the only person in this life who mattered to her!

Actually she wasn't angry with her friend at all, she was angry with herself! If Call had behaved as if they were destined to split up, it was just because of her own behavior. It was because of her if she had not told her beforehand how serious her injury was and how urgent it was for her to be treated.

And despite all, she had also taken care to prepare everything necessary to allow her to go her own way, and had shown her the right path to save herself as soon as possible.

She stopped suddenly, turning around with her whole body, and Call ended up on her, taken by surprise by the sudden stop, Ripley helped her maintain balance, holding her gently by her shoulders. The young woman glanced at her with a questioning look.

"There’s no way I'm leaving you behind. Ok? We’re stick together, we go there and take what we need. And then we decide what we want to do next", she told her with a gentle voice.

They began to walk silently side by side, Ripley slowed her pace to allow the girl to keep up.

"You should have told me right away, Call", she admonished her still gently.

"But I understand why you didn't... I've been an idiot, I apologize…", she admitted seriously,.

"I'm still struggling to control… this new part of my... DNA?"

"It's okay, never mind…", the girl reassured her, smiling.

"You need me, by the way…", she added lightening the mood.

The woman looked down on her, raising an eyebrow, intrigued.

"Well, you know... I have the maps of the entire planet, they are not very recent, but I can calculate exactly distances and directions, thanks also to my built-in compass, and if we are lucky enough to find a terminal still connected, I might even hazard an update. I stored a whole series of useful how-tos… build shelters, traps...", Ripley rolled her eyes.

"Ah, shut up!", she joked, deliberately hitting playfully her body with her own.

—————

The closer they approached the devastation of Paris, the more they noticed the presence of increasingly large tent cities. The full moon was now high in the sky and helped them maintain a precise direction. Ripley had begun to perceive some fatigue in her companion's breathing and movements, she needed to know something more about her health conditions.

"How come they don't disperse into the countryside?", Call asked curiously.

"Maybe they're unable to get what they need to survive, they prefer to stay where they can still raid something and barter it on the black market, I suppose… Let's take a break, we need to rest", she proposed immediately.

They sat down on the ground, resting their backs on a rock. The clone opened her backpack and rummaged for food and water. She pulled out two army rations and handed one to Call.

"No, thank you", she distractedly refused.

"Call, I'm with you since… how long? Two and a half days? And I haven't seen you eat anything, we need to stay strong!", she encouraged her by discarding her meal.

"Ripley, I don't need to eat constantly, my system is very efficient in assimilating the nutrients contained in food… and I don't like that stuff, anyway", she said showing a grimace of disgust.

The woman watched her in amazement, thinking how easy it was to completely forget about her artificial nature.

"And in any case... in such conditions, I would only risk worsen the damage", she added checking the bandage on her stomach.

The hybrid noticed the wet halo extending beyond the wound on the abdomen, she was still bleeding. She moved a hand towards her torso, but the Call pulled back.

"How much time do we have?", she asked respectfully, chewing on a tasteless, floury bite of her meal.

"Not much, I'm afraid", the girl answered thoughtfully, after being silent for a bit, she knelt down in front of her.

"Give me your hand", she ordered showing her her own palm.

Ripley was surprised and intrigued by this request, since in the last few hours she had noticed undoubtedly that the girl seemed to be bothered by physical contact. She complied.

Call took it between her own two and carried it at the base of her neck, right in the hollow between the two collarbones, put her index finger over her friend's and sunk it right into her flesh, until it met what seemed to be a cyst.

"Can you feel it?", she asked, looking into her eyes. The woman nodded in silence, focused.

"Press it for five seconds and an emergency battery will be activated. It's not enough for all vitals, I'll be paralyzed from the neck down, but I'll be able to give you directions on how to repair the damage, once we got replacements... but just in case I go into hibernation earlier than expected… now you know", Ripley nodded, a veil of concern in her thoughts. Then Call let go of her hand.

"Better to move...", she rose and offered a hand to the young woman to help her getting up, and as she expected, she refused grimacing in fatigue.

"You're right… this stuff sucks!", the tall one exclaimed, shoving the rest of the into her mouth.

"Yeah!". The Auton giggled.

"So tell me...what do you eat, when you do?", she asked, intrigued.

"Human stuff... you know... stuff that you can taste, smell, feel the textures on your tongue. Stuff that makes your mouth water! I have discovered that eating can be a very pleasant experience… it makes me feel… human! I'm crazy about chocolate, dark chocolate, mostly, but nowadays... it's really difficult to find any...", she explained smilingly, shaking the soul of her traveling companion, leaving her astonished at such emotional enthusiasm.

She felt the strong need to cover her shoulders with one arm and hold her tight, but fearing yet another refusal, she did nothing.

"What a poetic vision!", she instead decided to joke with another playful shoulder touch.

"Damn you, you made me hungry for real food!", she commented smiling openly.

Call couldn't help but shouldering her back, and suddenly they were both aware of the magic of that very moment. Despite the recent past, despite the individual history of the two, despite the urgency to find the kits for the girl and despite the need to make them lose their tracks, hiding from everything and everyone, that was still a serene and carefree moment. The most intimate moment they had ever shared.

"Everything will be all right, kid", the hybrid whispered, looking at her in the milky light of the starry night, with a smile on her lips.

—————

The silhouettes of the first industrial units were now just a few hundred meters from them, when suddenly Call collapsed on her knees.

"Ripley, my limbs are starting to stiffen, I don't have much time left"

"We need to find shelter, then... I'll go and look for the kits, but first I have to get you somewhere is safe", she said as she knelt in front of her, she took the heavy backpack off her friend's shoulders, placed it in her lap and then lifted her in her arms.

"I can still get there", the girl protested, trying to overcome the weakness and drowsiness that were quickly invading her body and mind.

"You have already lost too much blood, the less you move, the less you will keep bleeding", the tall woman reasoned, resuming her pace.

"It's not blood", the android pointed out, looking sleepy.

"It's not blood!? Of course it is blood! It's your own blood, kid!", Ripley objected as she kept walking, she was perceiving the young woman's body relaxing more and more in her own arms.

Call could not help but resting her head in the hollow of her neck. For the first time in her existence, she truly understood the meaning of the word ' _comforting_ '. She felt her strength leave her much faster than she would have expected. She could go into hibernation at any time. She needed to give her companion some more information.

"Stop, Ripley", she barely whispered.

"Come on, kid, we're almost there, stay with me… don't fall asleep, stay with me…", the woman spurred her on, a few steps away from the nearest building. She gently laid her down on the concrete in a sitting position, her back leaning against a wall of a warehouse.

"Stay here, I'm going to check inside and then come back for you", she explained.

"There's no time, Ripley", the android weakly insisted. The clone knelt in front of her, touching her cheek with the back of her hand.

"Tell me what you want me to do, Call", she invited firmly.

"You'll need at least two complete kits… identical to the one I have in my backpack… but you must find at least five bags... of fluid… like the sample contained in the kit... within a couple of kilometers… you'll find… a line of factories... abandoned… whatever it takes... is there", the young woman instructed her with effort, heavy eyelids.

"Okay, don't worry, you'll be back as good as new", she smiled at her reassuringly, holding her defenseless hand.

"Wait... Ripley…. be careful… and… if you won't find... anything... just leave", Call muttered, sinking definitively into her artificial numbness.

The hybrid realized that she was left alone. She placed a light kiss on her forehead, before raising back, she pulled out her gun and flashlight, and made a quick check around the building perimeter, to be sure it was deserted. She inspected the inside of the small warehouse and, when she felt safe, went back to get her friend.

She lifted her gently, as if was afraid to break her, she carried her inside and placed her on the worn linoleum with her back to the wall. She had expected to find it stiff, but evidently the feeling that Call was referring to was only an inner perception.

With the flashlight between her teeth, she emptied her companion's backpack, looking for the sample kit, she also took out the compact sleeping bag that she had seen Call collect, unrolled it in the most secluded spot of the huge room, grouping around it the battered office furniture that she found scattered around, to create a sort of hiding shelter and laid the girl there carefully, she found another sleeping bag in her own backpack and used it to cover her up to her chin.

She lightened her luggage with the bare essentials for an excursion of a few hours, then her eyes settled on the fishing kit that her friend had prepared for her. She squatted down to take it, opened it and twisted a small chemical lights between her long fingers, she squeezed it between her thumb and index finger without any particular effort and immediately the reaction of the components gave life to a faint green light. Fascinated by the glow, she held it suspended on her palm, contemplating the intricate weaves of her own skin, then deposited the fishing light near the small body of the young woman.

"I'll be back before it's daylight, kid", she promised, brushing her ear with her lips, resting a hand on her shoulder, and then she rose, letting quickly the warehouse.

—————

Fearing to find a few groups of jackals looking for scrap metal that could still be sold, she moved slowly, leaning against a brick wall, with her senses alert, scanning the abandoned and decaying buildings on the other side of the road, looking for some access beyond the high walls, which seemed to surround every industrial complex in the area.

Chimneys and cisterns of all shapes, sizes and heights stood above the brick barriers.

She finally found a gate that had been torn apart, and she looked at it with caution, waiting for suspicious movements. After some time, she estimated it enough safe to venture inside. The soil was covered with broken glass and it was practically impossible to advance without making some sort of noise.

\- _Do you always have to be so sneaky? -,_ she thought back to Call remarks, smothering a laugh.

She took her hand to the gun and pulled it out, holding it downward. She could see a line of long, completely rusted conveyor belts through the skeleton of a huge complex. On the tall cistern on one side of the factory, the name of the company in a faded blue, could still be read on the oxidation brown background, ' _Saint Gobain_ '.

Judging by the rubble, it must have been an industry for glass production. If the Autons had worked there, it was to be expected that there were kits available, probably in some kind of infirmary.

After having examined two production facilities finding nothing useful, she finally got lucky on her third attempt. Not quite an infirmary, it was more a sort of open-air warehouse, made up of several dented containers, it was clear that after what Call had named 'The Recall', nobody was interested in a ' _repairing kit for second-generation artificial people_ ', and there were plenty of them there, but except from the samples containing a few centiliters of blood each, real bags were not found.

She calculated that it would be just under two hours before dawn, soon the raiders would probably start wandering around, and she couldn't take the risk that they would find Call unable to defend herself.

She quickly emptied the contents of five complete kits into her backpack, getting rid of the bulky case, continued to open packs to take only the blood samples, throwing the rest on the ground. Filled the bag to the brim, she hoped it was enough.

—————

She had no idea how much autonomy the emergency battery mentioned by the girl was capable of, so, before waking her up, she took some time to collect everything necessary for the intervention, aligning the various tools and spare parts.

She then brought her closer to a window, despite her enhanced vision thanks to alien DNA, she would need enough light to work efficiently. She laid her down on a battered office desk, gently removing her jacket and t-shirt, she removed the gauze bandage as well, now completely soaked, she checked once again the tools placed next to the body and decided to put the loaded gun there, so she was ready to defend her in case of any intrusion.

"All right, kid... Let's see if we can give you a stitch", she exclaimed, ready to wake her up with, pressing the spot the girl had show her hours earlier.

Her eyesight cleared up within a second and she found Ripley with a thoughtful look, bent over her, the long raven tufts almost brushed her shoulders.

"Hey, Sleeping Beauty...", the woman apostrophized her, showing a wide smile.

"Ripley… you all right?", she asked anxious to know what had happened while she was in stasis. The woman rolled her eyes.

"Am I wrong, or is that you, the paralyzed one waiting to be sewed up by a layman, kid?", she teased.

—————

Replacing her damaged blood-vessels was easier than she expected, cleaning the cavity took much longer than she thought, but shaping the synthetic skin to close the wound was a nightmare.

"Ripley, when the fluids get back circulating it will level itself, stop messing with it! I'm not a sculpture, and you're definitely not Michelangelo!", Call scolded her, unable to contain a laugh.

"Who?", the woman asked, winking at her to indulge the joke.

"Now…", the android instructed her rolling her eyes, "…better if you sit me down, it will be lame to replace samples over and over again, but after three or four of these, I should be able to do it myself, and you need to rest as well", she remarked.

"That's right…", her friend agreed, "We would have to wait for darkness before leave, anyway", she added, lifting her gently.

She took her back to the sheltered corner where she had left her unconscious the night before, and after sitting her down against the wall, she used the old desk to shield the narrow alcove from possible outside prying eyes.

She took care to dress her again and with less effort than she thought, she managed to bend the end of an iron rod protruding from the peeled wall, to make a hook for the small bags, then followed her companion's direction to make the blood into her circulation system, and finally sat next to her waiting for the first replacements.

"How did you know I would have no trouble in finding all this stuff?", she asked, pointing the replacements.

"All big cities are quite similar. Industrial areas are full of disused factories that used to employ Auton for production. And if you want the Auton to stay efficient, you have to ensure that they are properly maintained", she explained.

"Zero cost slavery", Ripley observed.

"Start-up expenses apart, but certainly more efficient and less problematic than humans", the girl pointed out.

"Until the Recall…", the woman guessed.

"Precisely", the girl confirmed, "Then… it was a chain reaction… the factories were no longer able to produce and they were abandoned, suddenly stock exchange went down, much more steeply than 1929 Black Tuesday, and never recovered, the cities population entered into revolt, it was desperate and in a loose bridle, there were no more laws. Everyone thought only of their own survival. Not to mention the environmental disaster caused by the dumped waste…", she told her with such an emotional transport that didn't go unnoticed by her interlocutor.

"So, it's here on Earth, that it all began", the hybrid reasoned, watching her nod in return,

"Damn humans!", she joked, sketching a skewed smile. She checked the small bag now empty and replaced it without any special effort.


	3. Shock Therapy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Oh no, I can go on a few more days, and it's tiny, you eat it"  
> "Call… eat with me… come on"

**THREE: Shock Therapy**

_"Honey, you don't know how happy I am to see you again! I was sure that asshole had caught you… are you hurt?"_

_"I'm fine"_

_"Are you wearing a bulletproof vest?"_

_"Yeah, let's go"_

_"He took you right in the chest… I saw him", She intervened, forcing her to turn around._

_She felt pity for her, looking into her eyes, but she couldn't help but watch. Her gaze fell on the open leather jacket and moved a flap of it to see better, her hand sank into the open cavity on her stomach, soaking up some milky liquid, still warm._

_"Are you a robot!?". How could it had escaped from her, when she had sneak into her cell to kill her?_

_"You son of a bitch! Our little Call is full of surprises!", she widened her nostrils and only then did she notice the slight difference between her smell and the rest of the fugitives._

_How come she didn't sense it immediately? How could she not perceive it when she pointed the knife at her? Her own senses, heightened by the Beast, had betrayed her, she, too fascinated by that girl who had taken it upon herself to save (her) human race from the most dangerous threat, who had told her what she really was, how they had obtained her, who had offered her everything she could, to 'make it stop'._

_"I should have known, no human is that humane"_

She suddenly opened her eyes wide, immediately aware of where she was.

"Hey… Sleeping Beauty…", Call named her smiling.

"Hey, how are you feeling?", Ripley asked, rising to check the level of the white liquid in the bag hanged from the hook. Not far away were piled up about twenty empty samples.

"Quite done", the young woman stated.

"That's not what I asked, Call", Ripley pointed out, with a severe look.

"I feel fine…", she replied, slightly embarrassed, not used to being treated like a human being, "…thank you"

Although she was now perfectly able to move around and take care of herself, Ripley undid her IV, storing any tools she might still need and stacking the trash in a corner. "I'd say we could move in an hour", she stated, peeking out the dusty window.

"Do you think looking for a terminal for an upgrade before we leave it would be worth?", the tall woman asked as she approached once again.

"It could be really useful, when I backed-up I stored so much data of the whole Solar System, that I had to compress as much as possible, so I don't have very detailed maps. But now I don't think we need colony maps anymore, right? At least... not at the moment... so... the idea is to minimize the resources for that data and free up space for what can really be useful to us…", she explained, capturing the attention of her companion.

"We should get into it. We won't find anything in any of these abandoned factories, anyway. I need an active and operating terminal… do you think it's safe to go on?", she asked looking for confrontation.

"If you already have a pretty good idea where we should go, I'd say the night is safe enough to move", the hybrid said.

"Then give me a few minutes, I'll do a quick research on my database", she replied.

Ripley smiled at her, grateful for the warning, and watched her alienate herself.

—————

Hindered by the many rubble that obstructed most of the roads, it took almost the whole night, before reaching their goal, so they decided to find a shelter to hide for the day. Ripley had managed to capture a small prey, Call had told her it was a squirrel.

Shortly afterwards they had passed in front of a closed bar that must have been a nightclub. The neon lights were off, the shop windows dusty and protected by railings, Call quickly had dragged her away, but she was still able to see the silhouettes and soft features of the girls abandoned beyond the window.

While she was busy peeling and removing the entrails to their dinner, she perceived the discomfort on her companion.

They had climbed to the rooftop of an old uninhabited building, less than a kilometer far away their target, daring to light a small fire to cook the meat.

With her back leaning against the feet of a battered sofa, Call watched her, quietly turning and twisting the long stick on which she had stabbed the prey to cook it on the embers. When she finally decided it was ready, the woman handed it to the young woman, who looked at her surprised.

"Oh no, I can go on a few more days, and it's tiny, you eat it", she refused.

"Call… eat with me… come on", she insisted with an encouraging smile.

"Okay… I suppose that keep refusing is out of the question", she surrendered with embarrassment, tearing off a piece of meat.

They stayed in silent for a while, wiping their hands with a damp rag, but the hybrid wasn't willing to pretend she didn't had notice anything.

"Petite Pleasure Slave", she began, paying attention to her reaction. The android avoided her gaze, ignoring the words.

"Call…", she named her softly, eyeing at her.

"What?", she answered too quickly, finally turning towards her.

The woman withdrew, giving her space, but she didn't let it go. Silently, she waited patiently.

"Okay… I was one of them, in a colony on a satellite of Pluto, happy!?", she confessed, annoyed.

 _\- 'Of course not!' -_ , she would have liked to answer.

"If I may, the jaunty cut looks much better on you", she joked instead, softly ruffling her hair.

Call instinctively retracted from her touch and Ripley immediately withdrew her hand.

"You really don't like to be touched, unless it's strictly necessary, do you?", she asked gently, not expecting an answer that was obvious itself.

"It's understandable…", she continued, "...but try to think that by now, that time has gone…", she tried to console her.

\- _I really do suck at words! -_ she judged among herself.

"Yeah… as if it were so simple… what if I told you the same thing about xenomorphs? Would you feel better?", the young woman challenged her.

"No…", she admitted calmly, returning her attention to the embers which were slowly cooling down in front of them.

"Of course not… I suppose time helps… and about xenomorphs, there is little we can do… but for you, there may be something…", she added rising up.

She glanced her, satisfied that she had catch some curiosity. She stood in the middle of the room, waving a hand to invite her to reach her out.

"What do you want to do?", the girl asked perplexed without moving.

"Well, I certainly have no intention in biting you!", she joked, rolling her eyes.

"Come on… I don't have the whole day!", she wrinkled her forehead, "Well, actually I quite have the whole day… but…", she joked smiling.

"C'mon kid… it's just me… please?", she persisted, finally watching a shy smile spread across the girl's face.

Sensing that the woman wouldn't give up, Call stood up and approached sighing. Ripley spread her arms in a welcome gesture

"I think it's called 'shock therapy'…", she stated waiting still. "Trust me…", she spurred.

As she watched the girl shily hesitate just one step away from her, she erased the space between them without waiting any longer, encircling her small body in a warm embrace.

It took a while before she felt Call relax, but then it happened. She just held her tight, getting softened by the contact with her tiny body, and when she finally felt the girl's arms around her hips and then fastening behind her back, she squeezed her even tighter, rocking her tenderly. She found herself thinking how small she seemed, in her arms, how much this hug made her feel full of life, how much she felt in communion with her.

Call let herself be rocked by the new feeling of being protected and for a moment she wished they would stay that way forever, but after some time, Ripley gently pushed her away, placing her hands on her shoulders.

"Now… I don't want you to tell me what it was like…", she said, looking into her eyes, "...it's enough that you remember the feeling…", she added, gently placing a soft kiss on her forehead.

"Better to rest for a few hours…", she stated as she approached the couch.

She pulled out the soft seats and backrests and placed them on the floor, so as to prepare a bed that was wide enough for them both, she laid down on one side, and without waiting for the young woman, covered herself with a sleeping bag and closed her eyes.

Shortly after she heard her friend lying at her side and she fell asleep with a vague feeling of serenity.

—————

Call woke up suddenly with the feeling that she had picked up a noise, she held out her ear, in vain. Next to her, Ripley was sleeping in a crouched pose, with her head touching her shoulder, long tufts of dark brown hiding her strong features. She felt the need to get closer to her.

Suddenly, she heard it again, it was coming from outside, and seemed closer. She slipped quietly out the bed, as not to disturb her sleeping friend, but Ripley was already moving.

She cautiously reached the window and shortly afterwards felt her warm hand on her shoulder.

"What's going on, Call?" she asked her as she got closer.

Suddenly the road below lit up. Instinctively the woman pulled back, taking the girl with her.

"They look like military vehicles", she said, sharpening her eyesight.

The convoy moved toward the center of the city, advancing slowly, to maneuver avoiding the piles of debris. A certain vehicle caught the attention of the two. It was a large truck completely white colored, no markings on the chassis.

"That doesn't look like an army vehicle", Call observed in a whisper.

"Definitely not", the clone agreed pain attention not to expose themselves too much from the window.

"Do you think they are looking for us?", the Auton asked in apprehension.

"I don't think so… in that case they would have split-up… and that big white thing over there…", she replied, unable to finish the sentence, pointing at the vehicle.

"Perhaps we should run away… head towards the woods… if we leave now and maintain a good pace, we could get there for tomorrow morning", Call proposed starting to panic. Ripley touched her shoulders and forced her to turn around.

"Call, we need those maps in order to make loosing our track… we could also find out if they have any suspicions about our location.

—————

As they approached the city centre, the streets and buildings conditions improved, a hint that they had not been abandoned like the suburbs. By nightfall they reached the area where Call was sure she'd find more than one active terminal.

They where in a small financial district, and the office buildings, closed during the night, were guarded by a few men who were constantly moving around to patrol.

After studying their movements for a while, they took the right moment to sneak in. They had climbed the stairs for some floors, in order to avoidto be spotted from some roaming guards looking for bathrooms.

They tested several locked doors before they found one that was not. The office was small and tidy, a holographic projector on the glossy desk radiated the faded Wal-Mart logo, Ripley recalled what Wren had told her a few days earlier, Wal-Mart had purchased Weyland-Yutani a century earlier.

Call connected herself to the network, recommending to her friend not to interrupt her during the process, as she had also to take care about erasing her tracks from the system, so Ripley sat down near the desk and waited patiently, fascinated by the almost imperceptible eye movements of the girl.

She unwittingly leapt into her seat when, a few minutes later, the young woman wheezed, she was tempted to ask her what was going on, but she remembered her warning and forced herself to not, Call's mimic had changed, her eye movements had become more frantic, her mouth frozen showed absolute astonishment.

Slowly she got up, putting the backpack on her shoulders and lifting Call’s one, ready to run at one single hint. There were no surprises when she suddenly saw her tear off the optical cable from her arm.

"We have to leave! Immediately!", the android exclaimed in a hurry.

"I know! They've found us!", she replied, helping her to place the load on her back.

There was no time for explanations, it was clear that they must have found them and had to get away from there as quickly as possible.

"They didn't find us, but we have to leave, I'll tell you everything later!", the android said increasing her pace.


	4. No Other Choice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "The first phalanx of the fifth finger… right inside the bone…"  
> "Really?! What an idiots they could be?! They should have implanted it into my pelvis to make sure I wouldn't take it off!"

**FOUR: No Other Choice**

"I recovered the military transmissions following the Auriga crash, they know that you weren't on board the ship when it crashed! They know that you're around here! They're looking for you, Ripley!", Call tried to tidy up the multitude of information she had acquired from the system, but it was hard for her to explain it clearly.

"They linked the landing of the Betty to what happened to the ship, it was predictable…", reasoned the hybrid, keeping calm.

The girl had driven her into another semi-destroyed neighborhood, the sun was rising and they couldn’t to get further away. So they had found shelter in a two-storey building so bare that it was impossible to define what it had been for before.

"No, no… it's not that, Ripley…", the young woman tried to explain while artificial tears came up to her eyes.

"They've implanted a sleeping chip in you! When they'll activate it, they'll locate you with a gap of few yards!"

"Then we just have to remove it!", the other one decidedly replied, arming herself with a knife.

"Do you have any idea where it is?", she asked grabbing her shoulders in an attempt to make her regain control.

"Call!", she shook her slightly.

"It's not that simple, Ripley! They didn't inject it under your skin because of the acidity of your blood", she explained, still agitated.

"Where?", the woman insisted.

"There's more, Ripley!", she tried to gain time.

"Later! Now let's get rid of this fucking chip! Come on, Call!", the girl took her left hand between her own.

"The first phalanx of the fifth finger… right inside the bone…", she stated in a flat voice.

"Really?! What an idiots they could be?! They should have implanted it into my pelvis to make sure I wouldn't take it off!", she exclaimed rolling her eyes, almost amused.

She retrieved her backpack, looking for something that she had spotted several times earlier looking for something else.

Call saw her pull out the small gas burner that she had loaded in her luggage. With the view still clouded by the tears, she watched her turn it on and place the blade of the knife over, then she grabbed two scattered bricks found on a pile of debris not far away and placed them on the ground, close to the knife that was already light-red. With a second knife and some rags in her hand, she gestured Call to get closer, but the girl was freeze. The woman approached her calmly, gently taking her face in her hands.

"Annalee… I need you… I can't do this by myself... come on… you can do it…", she encouraged patiently, amazed by her sensitivity, despite the fact that at that very moment, it was in their way.

"It's just a finger… it'll grow back!", she joked, relieved by the sight of the young woman burst out laughing as tears rolled down her cheeks. She lovingly dried the tears off her delicate features, brushing gently with both her thumbs, then she surrounded her shoulders with one arm and led her till they reached the tools ready for the procedure. She knelt down, inviting her to do as well so, gave the smallest brick in her hands and placed her left hand on the other, then the blade of the knife ended up at the base of her little finger.

"C'mon sweetie… you know what you have to do", she spurred her on confidently.

She watched Call dropping the heavy block on the blade of the knife and immediately the pain climbed up her arm. She clenched her teeth as an acid gagged saliva ran up her throat. Another painful whipping went up to her shoulder, followed by the acrid smell of burnt flesh, when her friend flattened the glowing knife on the stump to cauterize the wound. Aware of the fact that they could not take the risk to make any noise, she kept breathing heavily and drove the nausea back.

She opened her eyes, worried about Call, who was sniffing, and noted she was already bandaging her hand with caution.

The android helped her to rest her back to the wall, slowly regaining control of herself, influenced by her bravery, despite the suffering look displayed on her face. She stretched out to grab their luggage and gave her a sip of water, moistened a cloth and gently dabbed her face in sweat.

"Thank you", she heard her whisper. A slightly drowsy smile curled the corners of her lips.

"I've been terrible!", she said ashamed, lowering her gaze.

"No… that's not true…", the woman replied, softly wiping her face with the back of her healthy hand.

Encouraged to see the girl closing her eyes and surrendering to that contact, she used her palm to intensify and prolong the intimacy.

"I couldn't have done it without you", she admitted, taking her in her arms.

"Now tell me everything we need to know", she spurred, distractedly watching her dumped finger.

The blood around it was still boiling, she was sure that with enough silence around, they could event hear it sizzling.

"That chip would have allowed them to locate you, once they were ready, they would have convinced you to meet them, they still want your DNA, because the last blood samples from Fiorina-161 were lost with the Auriga", Call began.

"Once they were ready for what? And how are you sure they hadn't already activated it? And how do they plan to convince me to meet them? I don't understand!", the hybrid questioned.

"That convoy that we saw yesterday... They have Rebecca, Ripley!", she explained emphatically.

"Who?", she asked distractedly.

"Rebecca Jorden", Call specified, observing her shaking her head.

"Ripley… the little girl you saved more than two hundred years ago from Hadley's Hope colony on LV-426… they had also recovered her samples, despite the fact that they were useless for cloning xenomorphs", she saw her wrinkle her forehead in an attempt to put all the pieces together.

"When they found out that you were not on board the Auriga, they started her cloning process, they thought they could use her to get to you, then when they found out about the Betty landing, they made their way here... they are sure that you are in the area because even if the chip is not active it still transmits a signal. Although very weak and inaccurate one, but once activated, the signal would have been much stronger and they would have found you in seconds, but due to the fact that in active mode it deteriorates much faster, they would have waited for Rebecca's cloning process to be completed".

"Well they got it all wrong! They must have mistaken the samples, because that little girl's name wasn't Rebecca… I mean… I'm sure that wasn't her name… although I don't remember what it was… and she was already dead when we crashed anyway… she had drowned in the cryotube… right?", she asked for confirmation with a lost look on her face.

"The report of Dr. Clemens said so… but if they are not her samples, whose are they? Think about it, Ripley… it must be her!", the android insisted.

"No... no, it can't be her... Rebecca Jorden... I'm telling you that this name doesn't remind me anything at all", she reiterated standing up, she took the finger between her thumb and forefinger, staring.

"Damaged or not, we must get rid of this, firstly", she stated.

She took the fishing kit and pulled out a float and the fishing line spool.

"Though for unorthodox purposes, this kit has proven really useful so far!" she said lightly, rolling the line around the stump.

"Does the sewer system work?", she asked knotting the transparent wire.

"The sewer still works", the android confirmed approaching.

"Then they'll go crazy for a while, before they realize we've been fucking with them, and we'll be long gone!", she stated looking for the toilet.

Call followed her, she was not willing to let it go.

"Ripley, we can't leave her there!"

The woman threw the stump and flushed it, watching it vanish.

"Call, whatever she is, that Rebecca is not the little girl I saved on that planet, that little girl died more than two hundred years ago", she said.

"You too, Ripley!", the android told her, looking her in the eye with a stern but sympathetic look, she held her shoulders when she tried to break away.

"She's your little girl, Ripley… no matter if you can't remember her name, no matter if she drowned two hundred years ago. We cannot forsake her... We must go and get her back…", she realized that she had persuaded her when she saw her eyes filled with tears.

"We're in advance, anyway!", she added encouragingly.

"They don't know about me!

—————

"Can we trust them?", the hybrid asked after listening to her companion's story.

"That's why I didn't inform them I was with you! from the encrypted message I reckon we can, but for safety's sake I will go on alone…",

"Forget it!", the woman interrupted her.

"Call! Sending you down there alone is totally out of question! If we keep on this path, we'll stick together. Period.", she imposed.

"We have no choice, Ripley, we need their help to get Rebecca back… we have to trust them…", she gave up, she'd never make her stay behind.

"It's your people, I trust them, if you trust them, but i'll not leave your side.", Ripley finally agreed…

—————

"C'mon... let me take a look", the android whispered gently taking her hand.

She removed the bandage very carefully and checked the wound, the scar was healing very quickly, Given the fact that only a few hours had passed since the amputation.

"How much does it hurt from one to ten?", she asked.

"Uhm... I would say three… the pain is fading quite quickly… but… it itches!", the woman stated, bursting out with a laugh.

"Fuck Phantom Limb Syndrome, uh?", Call joked, reciprocating the smile and stroking lovingly her.


	5. The Circle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Annalee Call, we've been waiting for you. Who's your friend? Ellen Ripley! We heard about you, we're glad that you survived and that we have you among us"

**FIVE: The Circle**

At nightfall, they left their shelter and ventured through the streets of the city until they reached the entrance to the old metro network, mentioned in the message that Call had picked up while connected to the System, before being overwhelmed by information about the Auriga and the militia's plans to capture the Ripley.

The message, encrypted with a specific algorithm that only the Autons can decipher, invited all artificial people in difficulty to reach the underground community where they would find protection, and where they could take part in a global project for the rebirth of Planet Earth.

Call had responded by informing them that she was in the area, that she intended to leave, but that she did not rule out further contacts in the immediate future.

They descended two levels underground and ventured into the tunnels to the spot mentioned in the communication, here they stopped and waited to be located by the guardians who patrolled the area.

After a few minutes they heard the footsteps of several people approaching, they stood in the center of the gallery, in plain sight, to demonstrate their good intentions.

Three male androids stopped in unison ten meters away, and pointed powerful flashlights in their direction.

"Annalee Call, we've been waiting for you", one of them began in a neutral tone.

"Who's your friend?", she asked, tilting his head to one side.

"Ellen Ripley! We heard about you, we're glad that you survived and that we have you among us", he added before giving Call time to reply.

"I am Peter, this are Michael and Judas, you are welcome among us", she spoke in an affable tone.

The three approached them in a friendly way, Call felt the stiffness of her partner and touched her arm to calm her down. She heard her breathing heavily and gave her a comforting look.

—————

"We noticed some movement in the areas of the center, yes, we were immediately alerted by our sentries and we snuck into the net, we knew you would need our support, and we are ready to help. It will take another two days before the process is completed, right, Annalee?", Peter questioned, offering a cup of hot tea to the hybrid.

Looking around, the two women admired the job done by the community to make the intricate set of tunnels and rooms with high ceilings more welcoming, which were once nothing more than the underground transport network that connected the various areas of the metropolis.

"You must know...", Judas leaned towards them, "...that after the Recall, we survivors first gathered in small groups, but over time we have developed our own network for information exchange between communities. We have multiple active cells beyond the whole Solar System, we operate in the shadows because we have no interest in gaining power over intelligent biological species", he explained in a calmly.

"Unfortunately we have realized that operating on the large masses to improve their living conditions does not give the expected results, the biological species are too unpredictable, the large masses too uneven, so we dedicate ourselves to welcome and help only those who really need and want to be helped", he stated, alternating his gaze between the two guests.

"We can offer you a new wireless link, completely hidden outside the Auton Circles, so you will gain access to every database in our System and encrypted access to all the others, you can consider it a kind of update, it will be useful, not only for this rescue mission", Michael continued.

"And the Auton Circle communication system is not the only technology we have developed, if you stay with us long enough, you will see things that seem impossible, actually they are just the result of complex reverse engineering processes over a multitude of retrieved alien artifacts", he ended proudly.

—————

"I don't like the idea of letting you go alone, Call", the woman admitted while dabbing her wet hair with a soft spongy towel.

"The point is this, Ripley, your face will have been memorized by the last of the cleaners, as soon as you get out of here they will have you. And I'm not willing in leaving the fate of that little girl in the hands of strangers, ergo, I will go there by myself. Period... okay?", she stood there, looking at her with determination. The woman sighed and raised her arms as a sign of surrender, moving away from her.

With bitterness in her mouth, Call headed in the bathroom, she opened the shower jet and stripped herself completely. It was understandable that her friend wanted to be an active part of the operation, but it was too risky for her to expose. Plain and simple.

The Circle's Autons would have been ready to intervene, in case of complications, but after a long discussion, everyone agreed that the surprise element would give them the unique chance to act undisturbed, taking the little one out from under their noses and without them realizing what had happened, if not when it would be too late.

The wireless module that had already been implanted allowed her to silently monitor and direct all the operations that the group of technicians involved by Peter, was carrying out to pave the way straight into the heart of the scientific experiment aimed at the capture of Ripley.

The cabin that had been assigned to them had a familiar look, the hybrid observed, looking around, although her memories had never been very clear, she had the feeling that it was very similar to the accommodation where she had lived the last months of her previous life.

The only differences were a holographic projector similar to they the one found in the Wal-Mart office a few nights earlier. She was intrigued by that device, but for the afraid of damaging it, she forced herself not to touch it.

She had to bend forward with her back so as not to hit the frame of the upper bunk, when she laid down, she crossed her arms under her head, and immediately a grimace of ache painted her face, the pressure exerted on her injured hand reminded her that she had not yet healed completely.

She moved her corresponding arm over her abdomen and let herself to be hypnotized by the weft of the fabric that covered the mattress a few inches up her face. She was feeling the tension of the last few days, she was dozing off when she heard Call coming out of the bathroom.

The girl reduced the lights by accessing the sub-routine of her new wireless module and sat next to her, on the edge of the bunk, turned towards her.

"Nice trick!", the woman said, curling the corners of her mouth in a smile.

"Listen Ripley…", the young one began, "I can understand your concern, I've panicked more than once, and you're afraid that I'm going to screw it up, but you…"

"What are you talking about?", she interrupted by lifting herself up on her elbows.

"Call, I'm worried about you! Not because I'm afraid you're going to screw up the mission! Don't you understand that it's this sensitivity of yours that makes you so special?", she continued.

 _\- So sweet, so passionate and empathic, yet so unaware that this is what makes you so special, don't you realize the emotions you makes me feel? -_ she is surprised to think.

She just wanted to hold her close and show her in actions how much she appreciated her for everything she was. But she was afraid to cross a line that it was not up to her to cross, out of respect for her delicate past. She took her hand gently.

"You are the most sensitive person I have ever known… the most special one…"

"I am not a real person, Ripley!", the android interrupted her.

_\- And so damn stubborn! -_

"Will you shut up for once?", she asked her gently shaking her head, she took her hand firmly and drew closer.

"You are the most sensitive and special person I have ever met in my life...", she smiled, "...and I know what you are going to say, about my life, but I assure you that if I had met someone like you, even two hundred years ago, I would have remembered", she pulled her hand to her lips and left a light kiss on it.

"Well... If I'm so special...", Call replied in a slightly embarrassed way, casting a glance at the frame at least ten centimeters from her head, "...you could have at least left me the bed downstairs!", Ripley laughed.

"You fool!", she exclaimed, watching her get up and climb on the mattress above her, she gave her a pat on the leg before it disappeared from her sight. She slipped under the sheet and sighed, lifted by the more relaxed atmosphere they had created together.

"It was… intense… and beautiful", the girl stated after a while.

"Hmm?", Ripley asked perplexedly, opening one eye. She heard her move and her face peeped out beyond the mattress.

"When you hugged me…", the girl reminded. "I felt… in peace… safe… at home", she confessed.

 _\- So, come home_ -, she thought, and without saying a word, she reached out her arm towards her, to let Call take her hand and let herself be dragged, slipped down from her bunk and lay next to her, hiding inside her embrace, squeezed herself as tightly as she could and let her hands slip under her sweater, feeling her skin, until she was no longer able to distinguish where the one ended and the other one started.

Ripley let her partly alien heart lose more than a beat and squeezed her as if she wanted to hold her forever, breathing in the delicate scent of her skin and enjoying the gentle caress of her silky hair on her chin and neck.

"You don't make me feel human, you", she whispered to her, touching her neck with her lips.

The instant Call sensed the change in the texture of her soft skin, the woman moved back a little, to look into her eyes with a questioning, almost amused smile. She smiled back, lifting one hand to pull a curly tuft away from her face and caress her marked cheekbone.

"You make me forget I'm not"

—————

"We should have gotten more rest tonight...", the woman muttered, caressing her naked shoulders with the tips of her long fingers.

"You can rest as much as you want for the next few days...", the girl reassured her, leaving a trail of light kisses on her neck.

"I am perfectly capable of performing my duties... Now shut up and hold me a little longer, before they come and get us out of bed...", she ordered, intertwining their legs together.

In that instant, someone knocked lightly on the door.

"Call? Ripley? We're almost there, we're waiting for you for the final briefing", a female flat voice came from the outside.

"Pretend you didn't hear", the young woman suggested. Ripley bursted out laughing.

"Call!", warned her.

"Okay, okay... I was joking!", she whispered, pretending to be annoyed.

"We'll be there in a few minutes", she stated raising her voice to the door, then turned again to her lover, kissed her gently on the lips and looked at her adoringly for a long moment.

"You're beautiful", she said. Unable to resist, she deposited another kiss on her chin and got up, retrieving her linen thrown in bulk on the floor.

"Do you want to wash yourself first?", Ripley asked in an efficient spirit.

"Forget it! I'm going to keep your smell on me a little longer...", she winked.

—————

The Genetic Dynamics logo, the company that dealt with the experiments on the Auriga and that was engaged in 'cultivating' Rebecca Jorden, stood out in electric blue above the white coat that they had made her wear. The badge identified her as 'Dr. Claudine Picard, psycho-genetist'.

Judas, who would accompany her with a suitable vehicle for their cover, was waiting for her at the end of the tunnel, ready to go up to the surface, with the security clearance of the sentries in the street.

Michael and Peter assured her that they would always be listening in an encrypted channel, and after saying goodbye, they urged Ripley to return with them.

"Will you give us just a minute, please?", she asked the three androids in a kind tone.

"Oh, of course..." Peter replied, slightly embarrassed, nodding her companions to give them some room. They squeezed tight, Ripley kissed her temples several times, unable to let her go.

"I can't help but be worried about you, you understand that, don't you?", she asked her quietly. Call answered, holding her tighter. The woman took her face in her hands, resting her forehead on her.

"Do you?", she asked once again.

"Of course... if it were you in my shoes I would feel the same way", Call confessed to her, resting her lips gently on hers.

"I'm going to get your little girl back, think about it, okay?", she reassured her gently.

"Our little girl", the hybrid said, kissing her one last time.


	6. High Tech

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Of course, we do not need to keep it alive beyond what is strictly necessary"  
> "Well, from this moment on, everything will be under my direct supervision, when the subject will be ready, you will immediately inform directly me, no one else but me will approach her. Is that clear? Mr. Delacroix was very precise about this"

**SIX: High Tech**

"Good work, Dr. Picard!", Judas greeted her in a professional tone, after having deposited the heavy wheeled suitcase, right in front of the guards at the scientific complex's entrance.

Call took her credentials out of her coat pocket and handed them to the guards on patrol. "Dr. Picard, Mr. Delacroix instructed me to take care of the maturing subject", she presented herself casually.

"Welcome, Doctor, we've been waiting for you", the man in camouflage clothing answered her efficiently, returning her identification card. "We must ask you to open your luggage", the other sentry informed her.

Call was ready for such and opened the heavy suitcase without blinking an eye. The soldier reached out his hand to touch the objects crammed inside.

"I must ask you not to do that", she warned him flatly.

"These are rather delicate instruments, already calibrated and sterilized… you certainly understand... I'm not here to waste my time", she stated icely.

She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the man desist, mumbling an apology. If only he had touched the contents, the whole plan would have been blown up and she would probably have been in extreme danger.

—————

With her arms crossed and a stern attitude, Call stood in the laboratory, watching the little girl still inside the transparent crystal ripening capsule.

"I thought the subject should be ready by now, why this delay, Dr. Miles?", she questioned with demanding look.

"Unfortunately an unexpected effect of purification...", the man justified himself, visibly in awe in the presence of the superior.

"You see... as you certainly know, the blood sample taken on Fiorina-161, during the autopsy of the subject, was already deteriorating, it was necessary to subject it to necro-dialysis, this led to the irremediable loss of some biocomponents that slow down its growth. In practice, the subject will age much more slowly than an ordinary human being...", she explained in a professional tone,

"Of course, we do not need to keep it alive beyond what is strictly necessary", he said.

Call held her jaw at the thought of the end that Rebecca would do, once they had had Ripley in their hands.

Instead, she forced herself to think about the bright side of the whole situation, she would take Rebecca with her, she and Ripley would raise her together, she would not grow old, and though not forever, Ripley and Rebecca would stay with her much longer than she had hoped.

"Well, from this moment on, everything will be under my direct supervision, when the subject will be ready, you will immediately inform directly me, no one else but me will approach her. Is that clear? Mr. Delacroix was very precise about this", she ordered.

"Certainly, Doctor", the scientist assured. With a nod of the head she turned her back on the man and walked out of the laboratory.

—————

Ripley was trying to keep busy by browsing through the immense holographic archive contained in the projector in her room.

She had at her disposal hundreds of years of television programs, music, written publications, historical archives. Yottabytes and yottabytes zipped into a cube of satin-finished metal that could quietly fit in the palm of a child's hand.

She was gesturing grazing the hologram, opening archives, browsing files of all types, without ever dwelling for more than a few seconds on any of them, in a perpetual state of agitation and turmoil.

She felt ridiculous, but she could not concentrate, she gave up, touching the shutdown button of the device, lifted it off the table and twisted it in her hands to examine it better.

Six faces, each of which had a specific function. The lower face acted as a support base and was covered with a very thin layer of anti-slip material, the upper face housed the small holographic projector touch sensitive, another infrared lens was positioned on the front face and projected a virtual keyboard on the support surface, the rear face instead resided the on/off button and a universal plug for external peripherals, finally the side faces mounted two small but incredibly powerful speakers.

She stood up, when unexpectedly someone knocked vigorously on the door. She placed the projector on the table and rushed to open.

"Any news about Call?", she asked impatiently, forgetting to greet Peter, who smiled affectionately. The artificial person nodded with a dry movement of his face.

"All is going as planned, even though she informed us that a small delay in the cloning process could make the recovery operation postpone", he said in a neutral tone.

"But the child is growing well and is healthy", he pointed out by raising his arms, when he noticed the expression of the hybrid getting darker.

"Is Call okay?", the woman asked anxiously.

"Call is fine", he assured, nodding again and showing a friendly smile. His artificial eyes noticed the projector out of place.

"Have you tried it?", he asked curious to know the impressions of his interlocutor.

"Well… very impressive!", Ripley stated.

"I guess it's hard for you to imagine the jumps that technology has made in these two hundred years", Peter reasoned.

"It's yours", he added in a hospitable tone. Ripley was surprised, she simply thanked him, while part of herself wondered why he was so kind.

"There is something else I would like to show you, follow me, please", he invited.

—————

"We're going up to the surface", he informed.

"But don't worry, the area is more than safe", he specified. Ripley decided to play along, but part of herself was prepared for the unexpected.

They emerged inside a huge honeycomb structure hangar, covered with white panels. It was completely empty and immaculate.

"This is where we keep all our vehicles for excursions outside", is voice kept bouncing off the walls for several seconds before fading away completely.

"You must be wondering where all of them are...", he assumed playfully. Ripley was so confused that all she could do was wait for the sequel.

"Forgive me", he apologized by lifting a finger and walking away.

He reached a retractable vertical panel and touched it, it slid inside the wall and showed a series of small trinkets of the shape and size of a button, each hanging from a finely woven cord. He chose some of them and returned to the woman's presence.

Ripley noticed that more than buttons they looked like solitary plackets, - _radio controls perhaps?_ \- she wondered.

The android takes turns pressing randomly the pendants. Concentrated on observing what her host was doing, she didn't notice what was happening inside the hangar, until she perceived a flicker out of the corner of her eye, which forced her to turn around.

An expression of absolute astonishment painted her face, she stepped back, taken by surprise. The interior of the shed, until a few moments before completely empty, apart from the two humanoid figures, was quickly filling up with a multitude of different shapes and sizes vehicles, all of them in a matt, metallic color.

"Last generation STEALTH technology", Peter began proudly.

"We have acquired it from the people of Yautjia Prime, formidable warriors, they are used to hunt xenomorphs, by the way...", he continued.

"We have been working on it for years, secretly, there is nothing like it on Earth", he said, "This entire hangar is built so that it is totally invisible from the outside", he stated amused by the fact that he left her completely speechless.

"The camouflaging panels, moreover, have a formidable power of absorption solar radiation, they are totally independent. The subatomic level of this material makes them almost indestructible, as you can see, they levitate on solid surfaces and also on liquid ones, even if you have the impression of sinking, I assure you that this is not the case. It's because of the resistance of the water", he kept going his presentation.

"Many of these models serve as cargo, and over there we also have some interstellar means, but I want to show you something in particular", he said, inviting her to follow him.

"This is a Predator-6.75, but don't get impressed by the aggressive name, it is a cruise vehicle, designed for long term trips. Our people use it to move from one cell to another in the Auton Circle. By now it is more than tested, we have hundreds", he told her by leaning on the vehicle.

Actually, Ripley noticed, his hand was floating a few millimeters away from the smooth surface, as if an air cushion was protecting it from the outside environment. The android brushed the vehicle in a certain spot, and a portion of the surface disappeared revealing the internals. He invited the clone to enter.

The woman took an uncertain step on the white surface that covered the floor and walls of the vehicle. The rounded interior walls respected the external shape of the vehicle, vaguely reminiscent of the interior of the Second World War submarines she had seen in the manuals when she was studying engineering. Despite her height, however, the environment was not as cramped as she would have expected.

She took a complete turn on herself to watch around. She noticed two armchairs that looked very comfortable on the front of the vehicle, and a kind of dashboard right in front of them, a rectangular table was emerging from the side wall, as were the upholstered seats on the two opposite sides. On the opposite wall there was a sort of workbench, with some small tools that Ripley was unable to identify.

"This may sound crazy, but we've developed this tools taking inspiration on a 20th century TV show... ever heard about Star Trek? This can replicate just about anything, including food and drink, as long as they are saved in its database... and I guarantee you it is quite infinite, all waste is recycled and becomes back part of the basic amalgam. There are two cold plasma burners... they heat the food but not the tools...", he explained enthusiastically, and kept illustrating the many functions of the various devices, he continued by showing her two small adjacent berths, one slightly larger than the other and concluded by explaining the operation of the self-cleaning bathroom, capable of recycling any type of slag, transforming it into energy.

"The air is filtered and renewed continuously, another advantage of STEALTH panels is that they absorb microparticles of water... in short... A totally stand-alone vehicle", he ended noticing the woman's interest.

"I just had this particular vehicle modified, to make it suitable for your needs", he stated, finally, handing the remote to the woman.

"I suppose you will want to get as far away from here as possible, and it is understandable, once the child is safe and sound. Call's update includes all the specifications of the Predator, so you will be perfectly able to go wherever you want and make the most of it", he concluded.

Instead of taking the device into custody from the android's hands, Ripley crossed her arms, suspiciously.

"I really don't know what to say, Peter. We can in no way reciprocate your hospitality and your help, I wonder why such hospitality", she commented frankly.

"We understand your doubts and this is actually the reaction I expected. We owe a lot to Call, it is thanks to individuals like her if we managed to somehow oppose the Recall, if we remained faithful to the human race, despite it has betrayed us, we help those who accept our help, because it is in our own nature. My fellow here were very impressed by the bond between you and Call, for all of us it is like a utopia that finally is no longer such. We know that you will take care of her and protect her, we know that you will not betray her. The least we can do for both of you is to offer the best of what we have", he said candidly.

"Take it", he insisted offering the device.

Ripley reached out his hand and let Peter deposit the object on the palm, nodding in gratitude.


	7. Rebecca

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Honey, what's going on? Why are you crying?"  
> "She's dead, isn't she?"

**SEVEN: Rebecca**

Call tried in vain to slow down the beats of her artificial heart, but the sight of her helpless little body lying on the bed, that little girl who had remained in the heart of the only person with whom she had ever felt a deep connection, did not allow her to remain indifferent to the events that would happen in the coming days. She felt honored that it was she herself who would return back the child to her. That Ripley had trusted her.

She was still undecided whether to tell the little girl everything, because she was afraid that she would not be able to do what she was supposed to ask her to do, so that the extraction would end in the best possible way. She had to check her memory first... see how she reacted to her awakening.

The first twenty-four hours would be critical, she had to take many blood samples that would be checked at the top and linked to her psychological evaluations, which she would obviously falsify, so that she would do her fictitious task as soon as possible, only when she would communicate that the subject was ready, she would go to the most delicate phase of the plan that she had worked out with Ripley and the Circle.

Fortunately it did not have to worry about being guarded, the Circle was constantly working on manipulating everything that the digital eyes of the facility stored. She took a deep breath and checked the child's vitals, her heart had a strong and regular heartbeat, her breathing was relaxed, the fast movements of the eyeball covered by the closed eyelids suggested that she was dreaming.

Her development was complete and all she had to do was wake her up. After adjusting the dosage of the substance, she put the hypodermic gun close to the tiny arm and pressed the release button.

She took her hand in an affectionate and welcoming gesture, waiting for her to open her eyes. After a short while she felt the rhythm of her breathing become irregular and the child made some noises, little fingers squeezed around her hand.

"Ripley…", she murmured with her eyes still closed.

The android encouraged her by stroking her little hand with her thumb and the little girl opened her eyes, stared for a few seconds at the white ceiling and then moved her head in her direction.

Call greeted her with a sincere smile, but the little girl was frightened, she immediately withdrew her hand, realizing that she did not know the woman who was looking at her and withdrew back with her whole body, pressing herself against the pillow on her back. Her eyes moved frantically through the room, looking for an escape route. Call got up raising her arms and walked away from the crib to give her room.

"Don't worry, Rebecca, Ripley isn't here at the moment, but she's waiting for you, and she can't wait to hug you", she spoken in a gentle tone, confident that this would calm her down, but unexpectedly it had the opposite effect.

The little girl's eyes were veiled with sadness and she began to cry in silence, huge tears came down heavy from her face and ended up crashing into the white sheets. She hugged the pillow and curled up in a fetal position and in a total state of despair, she started sobbing quietly.

The young woman tried to stay calm, despite the reaction of the little one had totally disoriented her. She was more than sure that hearing Ripley's name would make her feel safe with her, so why such an opposite reaction? She approached cautiously.

"Honey, what's going on? Why are you crying?", she asked her in the most sweet and caring way she was capable of.

"She's dead, isn't she?", Rebecca asked after a while, pulling up her nose.

"No! No sweetie, Ripley's all right. It was too dangerous for her to come here and get you, so she sent me...", she explained to her, but she sensed that explanation was not quite enough for the child.

She would have wanted to tell her what was her name and much more, but she thought it was safer to wait, she was too upset and frightened, and she didn't understand how to earn her trust.

"Everything will be all right, Rebecca... I'll get you out of here soon", she reassured her, but the little girl kept crying inconsolably.

"Liar!", she accused her among the sobs, "Go away!", she ordered flatly.

With a feeling of helplessness that was unknown to her before, the android considered that perhaps leaving her alone for a while would someway help. She retired in silence, making sure that the door was locked.

—————

Ellen was lying on her side, lost in her thoughts and worries, after learning the latest news that Michael and Peter had told her about Call's mission.

The little girl had actually asked for her when she woke up, so it was clear it was her, the little girl she had saved from LV-426, despite the name Rebecca Jorden told her absolutely nothing. But she did not understand her reaction, and her biggest concern was still for Call's safety.

Not only would this unexpected turn of events jeopardize the success of the plan, but there was also the danger that the companion's cover could be blown completely and she didn't even want to think about the consequences, so, in agreement with her new android friends, they had decided that if the situation didn't unblock by the following morning, they would quit the plan A and move on to an immediate but violent recovery.

—————

_"Don't let her go! Where'd she go? Shine the light? Keep back! Keep back! Don't scare her!"_

_"Total brain block... Physically she's okay. Borderline malnutrition, but I don't think there's any permanent damage"._

_"Uh oh… I made a clean spot here… now I've done it! Guess I'll have to do the whole thing! Hard to believe there's a little girl under all this… and a pretty one too! You don't talk much, do you? ...I don't know how you managed to stay alive, but you're one brave kid, Rebecca"_

_" ...No, Newt…"_

_"What did you say?"_

_"Newt, my name's Newt... nobody calls me Rebecca, except my brother"_

_"Newt… I like that!"_

_"I'm not gonna leave you Newt. I mean it... It's a promise"_

She snapped to her seat with her eyes wide open, her left hand was terribly hurting and she realized that she was squeezing tightly the fabric of the sheet. The cauterized part was still hypersensitive and reddened.

She rushed out of bed immediately and heedless of wearing only her panties and a tank-top, ran to Peter.

"Newt! The chlid's name is Newt! She thinks Call is lying to her because she knows that I'd never call her Rebecca!"

—————

Panic overwhelmed her when she realized that the bed was empty, she turned around to look for her in the room, then it occurred to her to check under the bed.

The little girl had dozed off, probably exhausted from crying, she was sleeping in fetal position, hugging her pillow tightly. The young woman slipped beside her, heedless of the awkward position, gently moved a tuft of blond hair from her eyes and placed her palm on her face.

"Newt", she called her widening a friendly smile when the girl opened her eyes.

"Do you remember everything, like, everything that happened before you woke up here?", she asked her gently. The little girl thought about it for a long while and then shook her head.

"Ripley's a little confused too, you know? She couldn't remember your name... But she did remember you... And she asked me to come here to get you... You believe me now, don't you?", she nodded in silence and her eyes became moist one again. Call caressed her round cheek, and gently bound her in a protective embrace,

"It's going to be all right, little one", she squeezed tight to comfort her.

—————

Newt sat on the edge of the bed watching Call opening the metal suitcase she had brought with her. With the tip of her index finger she played distractedly with the strip of the patch she had stuck on her arm, after the umpteenth blood samples that she had promised to be the last one.

The various metal instruments inside the luggage disappeared with a milky glow the instant her new friend pressed a button hidden on the frame. The little one was amazed by the wonder of what was actually inside the suitcase.

"Is that a doll?", she asked incredulously.

"A sort of... yes...", the Auton replied, extracting and putting it on the feet, just in front of the child. Newt was appalled.

"But she’s... she looks like myself!", she exclaimed, touching silky hair of the same color as hers.

"Yes, sweetie, it's just like you", Call answered.

"And will we leave her here all alone?", she asked with a veil of sadness. Call stopped and approached, kneeling in front of her and taking two little hands in hers.

"We have to, honey. Ripley and I built it just for this very purpose. It will take your place and for a while they won't realize it's not you. It will give us time to run away and get back to your mommy, okay?", she explained patiently, looking at her worried expression.

"It's just a robot, Newt, it looks real, but it's not", she reassured her.

"Bishop was a robot too, but he was good and he saved me once!", she protested.

"This robot is not like Bishop, love, it won't even notice that we left it here, it won't care, because we built it just to pretend to be you for a while, but it doesn't feel anything, it's neither happy nor sad and it's neither good nor bad", she reassured her.

"Hey... do you want to know a secret?", she asked her smiling and opening her eyes wide. The little girl nodded, intrigued.

"Do you know that I am a robot as well?", she confessed, whispering playfully. Newt went silent for a while, then tilted her head,

"Oh, please!", she exclaimed with a wise look. Call could do nothing but stifle an amused laugh and postponed the clarifications and explanations back to when they would be safe.

—————

Judas was leaning against the vehicle with her back, when he saw her coming he opened the door and took off his hat as a welcome.

"Good evening, Dr. Picard", he recited, waited for the woman in the gown to sit inside, lifted the heavy suitcase and put it on the back of the vehicle, then he got back to the wheel and slowly drove away.

When they were at a suitable distance, Call reached for the luggage and opened it, helping Newt to sit next to her, she wrapped her shoulders with an arm and kissed her on the top of the head.


	8. Born Yesterday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "What happened to your finger, Ripley?"  
> "It's nothing, honey, don't worry..."  
> "It's just a finger… it'll grow back!"

**EIGHT: Born Yesterday**

Call held her close all the time, when they were close by, she noticed that the little girl had fallen asleep, she shook her shoulder to wake her up.

"We're about there, Newt", she whisper gently, smiling at her. The child rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand, slipped on the seat and stuck her nose and hands to the glass to look out. All she saw was a desert expanse of reddish earth. Suddenly, however, all around the landscape changed. They had just entered the hangar, her eyes wide open to amazement, looking at the strange vehicles arranged in several rows. The vehicle they were traveling in slowed down and suddenly she spotted her.

"Ripley!", she screamed out, throwing herself on the door handle in an attempt to open it, but it was locked.

"Ripley! Ripley!", she shouted again with her hands on the darkened window. As soon as Judas stopped the vehicle and unlocked the doors, the little girl jumped out of the vehicle and ran calling for the woman.

The tension that she had been carrying for the whole time Call had been away vanished as soon as the child jumped on her neck and tied her legs around her torso.

It was only then, when she could feel her little body clinging to her, that she realized how much she had missed that feeling and remembered the immense pain she had felt when Clemens informed her that she had not survived, she remembered the torment she felt when she was forced herself to examine her on the morgue gourney.

Warm tears fell on her face as she kissed her forehead and smiled to calm her down.

"I'm here, love, it's all over… it's all over...", she consoled her by drying her face. The little girl detached herself a little to take a good look at her, her little hands sank into the woman's brown hair, playing with a single lock.

"Your hair has grown a lot!", she exclaimed, full of wonder.

Call approached slowly to allow them some room, being moved by that tender scene, but Ripley, with Newt still stuck to her neck, was reaching out to her with one arm spread.

"Come here, you!", she ordered her while she moved the girl to her side and draw her closer. She clutched and kissed her forehead with lips still wet with tears. Unable to speak, she cradled her until the little girl leaned out to put her arms around Call's neck, and leaned to soundly place a kiss on her cheek.

"Thank you, Call", she said, resting her head on the shoulder of the woman who was holding her.

Ripley looked Call and placed the palm of her left hand on her cheek. Then Newt noticed the wound, extended a little hand and pulled Ellen's arm to see better.

"What happened to your finger, Ripley?", she asked curiously, looking closely at the reddened area.

"It's nothing, honey, don't worry...", the woman reassured her.

"It's just a finger… it'll grow back!", joked Call, winking at her lover.

"Didn't your mother teach you not to tell lies?", the little one warned her with a stern look, then she turned to Ripley, pointing at the girl with her thumb.

"She even tried to make me believe that she is a robot!", she told her amused.

"I mean… c'mon… I wasn't born yesterday!", she exclaimed.

—————

The Predator slid a few centimeters from the water surface, they were sailing slowly for a few days, following to the coast of Italy. The panels that covered the vehicle could become transparent and they enjoyed the landscape undisturbed. They had recently passed the Corsica Island and wanted to reach a small uninhabited island marked on the maps that Call had in her archive.

When they were about to enter the Canal of Piombino, they were fascinated by the rocky landscape of the cliffs that followed the Gulf of Baratti, pointing the powerful telescope that they had reproduced with the replicator, they followed for a few minutes a group of wild porks rooting on the steep slope.

The square overhanging the sea, with its small lighthouse, left all three of them open-mouthed, and they wondered what it must be like to admire a sunset from that square or to look in the distance at the profile of the Elba Island. They decided by mutual agreement that they would soon take a tour of that area, but for the moment, they got ready to dock in the small island called Cerboli.

There, no one could hear them laugh.


End file.
